NEWS: Cambria Freeman; Ebensburg, Cambria Cnty., PA; May 1908 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Cambria Freeman Ebensburg, Pa. Friday, 15 May 1908 Volume 42, Number 20 Local and Personal John A. Schwab of Loretto was in town on Tuesday. L. J. Bearer of Susquehanna township was in Ebensburg on Tuesday. John E. Lowery, one of Lilly's merchants, was an Ebensburg visitor Wednesday. Wm. Doran of Summerhill township was in Ebensburg on Tuesday and paid THE FREEMAN office a visit. Mrs. Harry Yeager of Hastings spent Saturday with her friends, Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Cassidy of this place. Miss Evelyn Parrish, manager of the Post Telegraph office in this place, has gone to Pittsburg for a two weeks visit. J. B. Denny of Johnstown, Democratic candidate for State Senator in this county, has been in Ebensburg for several days this week. Mrs. Mary Johnson, relict of the late Judge Johnson who had been suffering from rheumatism for several weeks, is reported much improved in health. Editor Miller of the Barnesboro STAR was in town on Monday possibly among other things soliciting data for biographical sketches of some of our legal luminaries. Rev. Father H. M. O'Neill, rector of the church of the Holy Name in this place, was at Summit several days this week assisting Rev. Father Graven at the Forty Hours. Prof. C. B. DeLancy who recently moved to Ebensburg from Barnesboro on Monday last commenced work in his new position of deputy prothonotary in the office of Prothonotary Kinkead. Messrs. Joseph O. Thomas, R. S. Roberts sand L. J. Hughes of Cambria Township were in Ebensburg on Tuesday, the latter being in attendance at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Saloon League. Telephone Foreman is Badly Injured [article is blurred] William J. Lothrop Found Unconscious on Public Road Near Gallitzin William J. Lothrop, Construction Foreman of the American Union Telephone Company, was found on the roadside on the road from Gallitzin to Cresson, two miles from the [words blurred] on Saturday morning last, was unconscious, suffering from wounds which it was first appeared were inflicted by highwaymen, but which is now thought may have been the result of an accident. Lothrop is now lying in the Altoona Hospital in a semi-conscious state, suffering from a broken jaw, frightful lacerations of the back and concussion of the brain. It is now thought that while driving along the road in a buggy on which he left Gallitzin at about 8 o'clock on Friday night he may have driven off the road in the darkness of the evening and have been caught by an overhanging limb of a tree and pulled from the buggy as the buggy top was broken. Members of the State Constabulary have been investigating the affair, but as yet no arrests have been made and it is probable in the light of subsequent events, that none may be. Lothrop belongs to some of the New England States but an effort to locate his friends has so far proved unavailing. Mrs. Wm. Davis Recovering We are pleased to note that Mrs. William Davis, who had been seriously ill for several days during the beginning of the present week, is now on the road to recovery. Admits Colored Men - extract Amalgamated Association Settles an Ancient Controversy Youngstown, O., May 14 -- An end was reached to a fight that has been waged for thirty years with regard to the race question in membership. Colored mechanics in the Birmingham and Pittsburg districts had been demanding admission but not until this session was it decided to grant them this privilege. The Folly of Answering Matrimonial Advertisements - extract The folly of answering advertisements inserted in certain newspapers ostensibly for the purpose of securing a life partner was never better illustrated than by the recent development in the cases of the alleged victims of the now supposed late Mrs. Belle Guinness of Laporte, Indiana. [snip] When we read of some person having deeded his property to or of having given his money to some adventuress to marry him and that he was egregiously disappointed, our judgment naturally is "Served him right!" or when some silly American girl bestows herself and the millions which generally her paternal progenitor has accumulated by questionable means on some impecunious scapegrace of a foreign so-called nobleman, we think that she deserves the fate that generally befalls her, but it remained for the developments in the recent sensational tragedies in which Mrs. Guinness is alleged to have lured many victims to their destruction to furnish the best illustration of the folly – if not crime – of answering or making use of matrimonial advertisements to secure what they generally fail to do, a worthy life partner; and if the reported tragic death of Mrs. Guinness be true, of the truth of the adage "The wages of sin is death." New Boarders at Castle Griffith Peter Molner, a foreigner of Barnesboro, was brought to jail yesterday charged with too much marrying for which he will answer at June court. David Baldwin was also placed in confinement charged with surety of the peace. A Recent Visit to Loretto Our Reporter Pays a Visit to Town Founded by the Apostle of the Alleghenies On Saturday, May 9th, your representative in the ancient burg desirous to visit relatives in the vicinity of Loretto, boarded the first afternoon train at 1:42 for Kaylor's Station, for it is a well known fact that you can not reach Loretto directly by rail. The nearest railway station is Loretto Road, something more than a mile from Loretto; which is a long strung out town of about three- fourths of a mile in length and as we wanted to reach the lower end of St. Mary's street, the principal thoroughfare – and as Kaylor's is about two and a half miles from that point, we concluded to walk across from Kaylor's rather than wait for several hours for a train to take us less than a mile down to Loretto Road on the C. & C. branch. In this undertaking we were more fortunate than the Irishman who never met a team going the way he was, for we had not covered half of the distance when a gentlemanly farmer in a buggy overtook us and invited us to take a ride which invitation we thankfully accepted. The Historic Divide But we are getting ahead of our idea of describing the ride on the Ebensburg Branch out to Kaylor's. Leaving Ebensburg station the train drops down the grade to the North Branch of the Little Conemaugh which it crosses a short distance above Ludwick's dam which supplies water power to the Ebensburg Carding and Fulling Mill, an industry now falling into disuse. Then, the engine commences to work as it strikes the grade of the new line up to Winterset – a new name for old Bradley's Station to distinguish it from Bradley Junction on the C. & C. Railroad, a few miles to the northeastward. Passing Winterset you observe the snow fences that protect the lines from the drifts of winter and you come to the Dividing Ridge between the headwaters of the Little Conemaugh on the south and west and those of Chest Creek and Clearfield Creek on the east and north. So sharp is this ridge defined at one place on the line of the Branch that the waters drained from the north side of the road bed flows into the Atlantic Ocean, while that from the south side flows into the Gulf of Mexico. This dividing ridge extends clear from the ridge of the Allegheny Mountains to the north of the Summit, down past Cresson, then between the pike and Luckett's Station, winding around to the south of the railroad crossing to the north, near Luckett's then close along the line to near Winterset, where it trends northwestward, dividing the headwaters of the branches of the North Branch and the northern branches of the Blacklick from those of the Chest Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna, to and past the Indiana County line. A Boundary Line Between Three Different Counties When Bedford County was formed by the act of March 7, 1771, it embraced within its limits all the land purchased from the Indians of the Six Nations by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of November 5, 1768, west of the line between Cumberland County on the east and the then new county west up to Ohio (now the Allegheny) river, and south of the Maryland line; so the entire area of Cambria County as at present constituted was included in Bedford County. Westmoreland County was formed from this February 23, 1773, its eastern line being the present line between it and Somerset County and the present eastern line of Indiana County. September 29, 1787, Huntingdon County was formed, the Dividing Ridge heretofore mentioned being part of the boundary between it and Bedford on the south; and when in 1795 Somerset County was taken from Bedford, the former northern line of Bedford became the boundary between Somerset and Huntingdon. A Historic Region The portion of Cambria county north of this line has a history ante-dating that of Southern Cambria. In this section were several works of prehistoric man in the shape of circular earthworks or forts and several noted cemeteries, one near Ashville containing bones of human beings of a stature approaching eight feet in height. Near Ashville also were the "clear fields" where the Indians cultivated maize; for be it known that the Indians were not the indolent race they are represented to be, but as noble a type of man as God ever created. Past these fields winding up from Asunapachia or Frankstown, past Kittanning Point, up Burgoon's Gap and through the present town of Ashville, thence a couple of miles to the north east of Carrolltown, past Hart's Sleeping Place, Canoe Place or Cherry Tree to Kittanning on the Allegheny (then the Ohio) wound the "Kittanning Path," that great thoroughfare from the West to the East when the noble red men held undisputed sway on this continent. On this path we can imagine Longfellow's legendary Hiawatha passing westward to the land of the Dakotahs to woo and wed and bring back with him, Minnehaha (Laughing Water) to his home in the East. Over this trail, too, passed the commerce of the Indian, the red pipe stone from the quarries of Minnesota and the robes of the buffaloes from the plains; and from the East the furs of the otter, mink and bear and the back of the white birch for the light canoe. Over this path, too, the trader – Hart – often passed from the East to Kittanning unmolested by the red men who loved and trusted him. Back and forth on this path surged the tide of barbarous warfare, and by this route, Captain John Armstrong led his expedition in 1756 to destroy the Indian town of Kittanning. During the Revolutionary War, also, predatory parties passed over it to attack the white settlers in the Juniata Valley. At one time during the Revolutionary War, a party of twelve Tories left the Juniata Valley to go to Kittanning to induce the British and Indians stationed there to make an incursion on their patriotic brethren east of the mountains. This gang was headed by one Preston. The Patriots got wind of the movement through the good offices of a friendly Indian and gathered up a party to intercept the expected predatory band west of the bounds of the settlements, on the "Kittanning Path." Some place not far from Loretto they met two of the band returning and immediately captured them and taking them to Holliday's fort at the present site of Hollidaysburg, strung them up to the lentil of the fort, but relenting, cut them down with the result that this act of mercy had such an effect on one of them, named Hess, that he afterwards fought under Washington in the Continental army. From these men it was learned that the original twelve of the band that had started out with treachery in their hearts against their brethren, when nearing the post of Kittanning, being almost famished, hastened their steps, which action was mistaken by the British as a hostile act and they were fired upon and ten of the twelve killed or taken prisoners. The capture of the two men near Loretto was the last hostile act in actual warfare on the Kittanning Path. It is known, nevertheless, that the Indians ever after that, passed along the Path, but that they never committed any hostile attacks, notwithstanding the disappearance of a Mrs. Alcorn from the McGuire settlement near Loretto, who was probably lost or drowned and her remains never found. Returning to our trip from Kaylor's to Loretto, the route is for the most part down the valley of the west branch of Clearfield Creek. Clearfield Creek, Clearfield Township and Clearfield County derive their names from the "clear fields" already alluded to, and probably from other spots of similar historical reputation. On this small stream, a short distance above Loretto, on what is now marshy ground, once existed a mill dam from which ran a long race to a grist mill to the south westward of Loreto, known as Dr. Gallitzin's mill. Some people suppose that this was the first grist mill erected in Cambria county, but this is a mistake as John Sturm, - afterwards known as Storm, the Anglicized form of the name - as early as 1792 had bought the land at the present site of Seiber's mill near Dawson's Station, and there erected a grist mill which was probably the first grist mill within the limits of Cambria county. At the time Storm made this purchase the land was in Frankstown Township, Huntingdon County, which township was subsequently divided, and his portion of the original township, including what is now Allegheny Township, Blair County and probably more – became Allegheny township; which it was at the time of the erection of Cambria County – Storey's History to the contrary notwithstanding – and which name a small portion of it yet retains - Reade, White, Dean, Clearfield, Chest, Carroll, Elder, Barr and Susquehanna having been erected out of this original acquisition from Huntingdon County, including of course the towns within these districts. (To Be Continued)